Grading... Rounding up?

[yinne]

An 'A' around here is 93-100. If the grade is 92.7 do you round up? My dh says no -- that is what kept him off the honor roll. What is your opinion?

 

Yvonne in NE

[Storm Bay]

I would if I thought my dc merited an A because they lost it because of one bad test on a bad day or something. Not all ps teachers will do that, of course. I'm not sure if I would otherwise. Traditionally, I've rounded everything up or down according to regular math scoring during a semester, but that tends to even out over time anyway. After seeing dd's first ps assessment, I see that they don't do that.

 

I'd graded dd on the 93-100 A, but this ps has 90-100 as an A, so I'm changing accordingly for my younger 2. It will make a difference when it comes time to apply to colleges if they look at the percent earned for the grade, of course.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Karin

[creekland]

Our high school (public) has some teachers giving bonus points if kids bring in products to ship to soldiers in shoeboxes. I refuse to send my youngun in with anything (PLUS we're on a tight budget right now so it wouldn't be a wise decision anyway, much less for the "academic" aspect of it all).

 

I don't see where rounding up will do any harm. It might help with the college applications later on.

 

On our transcript for oldest I just put numbers down. It worked. I'll probably do the same with middle son. I wish youngest son would get tired of going to ps.

[Hannah C.]

I would round up. I'm fairly certain that at the public high school I attended, such grades would be rounded up. If a student received a 68 or 69 instead of a 70, their grades would be rounded up to the 70 (passing), so I don't see why a 92.7 wouldn't be rounded up to a 93. :)

[kiana]

I absolutely would round that.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

I round up if my kids have had a good attitude doing that subject. I round down if attitude or diligence has been bad.

[LisaKinVA]

Every school, every teacher, I had from the time I received my first report card, through college would round that up.

 

I knew of one private school in IL who selected their high school valedictorian (there were two who were "tied.") by going all the way back to kindergarten grades...:glare:

 

I just couldn't imagine that...to lose as High School Valedictorian because you scored a 98 instead of 100 in K :001_huh: (sorry, I think they should have just had co-Valedictorians and skipped the Saludatorian!)

[EKS]

If an A is >93 and not 93.0, then it is appropriate to round up. If this issue kept your husband off the honor roll, then the person doing the reporting did not understand how to report numerical data.

[Hockey Mom]

I would make it an A-.

[Excelsior! Academy]

Ditto pp. Round up.

[AnitaMcC]

An 'A' around here is 93-100. If the grade is 92.7 do you round up? My dh says no -- that is what kept him off the honor roll. What is your opinion?

 

Yvonne in NE

 

 

I don't round up.

 

Our schools (school district and colleges) use the grading scale of 90-100 for A, 80-89 for B, and so on. I figure it is "easy" enough to get an A if they did the work and studied. So I don't do extra credit or rounding up of grades.

 

But if they were so close to a higher grade, I would allow them do an extra assignment to give a chance to raise the grade. It would be something worth the points.. not a filler or extra credit. They would have to do exceptional on the assignment to impact the over all grade. I figure if they are willing to do a little more work... then they can do so. Usually my twins don't bother. They think a B is good enough...

 

But one thing I would do if I used an adjusted grading scale (93-100 an A, etc) I would include the final grade score on transcripts. Some colleges do a 90-100 is an A grade scale and they may adjust the grade point average to fit their scales.

 

To me this just makes it more equal for all the students applying for college. I would hate my kid loosing out on a scholarship because their GPA was slightly lower than another students because I graded a 93 as an A and their schools/parents use a 90 for an A.

[Brigid in NC]

You have to round one way or the other -- so just be consistent in your rounding from class to class, year to year. A 93-100 scale is rigorous enough. I vote round up! A 92.7 is a lot closer to a 93 than a 92. Give your student a deserved psychological boost! :-)

Edited December 16, 2010 by Brigid in NC

[Hannah C.]

I knew of one private school in IL who selected their high school valedictorian (there were two who were "tied.") by going all the way back to kindergarten grades...:glare:

 

I just couldn't imagine that...to lose as High School Valedictorian because you scored a 98 instead of 100 in K :001_huh: (sorry, I think they should have just had co-Valedictorians and skipped the Saludatorian!)

 

I went to a large public school, where class rank was determined by percentage grades from all high school classes, weighted based on the level of difficulty of the class. My average grade, weighted, was about 103%. They used all the decimals to figure out who was first and who was second, and so on down the line. (I graduated 23d in a class of over 600.) It was crazy. They certainly didn't take anything beyond high school into account though!

[yinne]

Thanks for all the responses!!

[LisaKinVA]

I went to a large public school, where class rank was determined by percentage grades from all high school classes, weighted based on the level of difficulty of the class. My average grade, weighted, was about 103%. They used all the decimals to figure out who was first and who was second, and so on down the line. (I graduated 23d in a class of over 600.) It was crazy. They certainly didn't take anything beyond high school into account though!

 

The two large public high schools I attended, before going home, also had similar systems. If you were in an honors or AP course, an A was worth 10 extra points on the scale so 90-100 would translate to 100-110 for a weighted course. I thought the differentiation was worth the extra work. My high schools only offered honors courses in 9th/10th grade, after that you had to take "regular" or AP. I'm not sure how it would have worked if honors courses had the same GPA weight as AP.

 

My dh attended a different high school where there was zero weighting. The Valedictorian was not necessarilly the one taking the more difficult classes...and some people DID make their course decisions based upon that. I think they have since changed their policy, because people weren't signing up for the AP classes, when the standard + some honors track was easier (but not too easy).

[Ellie]

Well, isn't that basic math???:confused:

[BlsdMama]

The actual grade is a 92.7%

 

You are either rounding UP to 93 or DOWN to 92. It is only logical and mathematically correct to round to the closer number - in this case it's a 93.

 

That's not bias or whatever you'd like to call it, only mathematically correct.

 

If it was 92.5 or higher, it becomes a 93. If it is 92.4 or lower, it becomes a 92. And I think I'd add a note to my student that maybe next time he/she might not want to cut it so close, lol. :D

[yinne]

And I think I'd add a note to my student that maybe next time he/she might not want to cut it so close, lol. :D

 

I will tell him that:001_smile: He actually has three courses this semester with borderline A's -- 92.5, 92.8, and 92.5.

 

Yvonne in NE

[LauraQ]

Daily/individual grades can be rounded (5-9 rounds up, 1-4 rounds down, just like we were taught in elementary math) without much controversy, but I can understand arguments against rounding final grades. If you look at how many higher individual/daily grades would be needed to bring a 92.5 up to a 93.0 then you would see just how much you are "giving" them "for free" when you round up a final semester grade. To me, that is not at all the same as when I round a daily math grade from 96.6666 to 96.7! (ETA I'm just arguing the other side--I agree you should simply be consistent no matter what you choose to do. I personally would round mathematically in all cases--I round to one decimal point on daily assignment, to whole number on final grades)

Edited December 17, 2010 by LauraQ